Ethiopia to withdraw troops
2005-12-10 20:17
Addis Ababa - Ethiopia said on Saturday it was ready to withdraw troops from its disputed border with Eritrea to conform with a United Nations Security Council resolution threatening sanctions, the official ENA Ethiopian news agency reported.
"In the interest of peace... Ethiopia is prepared to redeploy its forces consistent with the instruction of paragraph 2 of resolution 1640," the official ENA news agency said, quoting Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin.
"Though we have seen no encouraging signs from Eritrea even after resolution 1640 has been adopted, Ethiopia is convinced that its compliance with the council's instruction is necessary even if doing so might have some risk for Ethiopia's security," Seyoum said.
Alarmed by increasing troop movements along the border, which was the subject of a 1998-2000 war, the Security Council voted unanimously on November 23 to threaten both Horn of Africa countries with economic and diplomatic sanctions should they return to war.
- AFP